{"id":6226,"date":"2026-07-16T20:37:52","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:37:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6226"},"modified":"2026-07-16T20:37:52","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T20:37:52","slug":"gop-leaders-forced-to-abandon-signature-veterans-benefits-bill-amid-intra-party-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6226","title":{"rendered":"GOP leaders forced to abandon signature veterans benefits bill amid intra-party dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<div>\n<p>\n            Speaker Mike Johnson suffered another humiliating political defeat at the hands of his own party on Thursday when he was forced to abandon plans to pass a veterans\u2019 benefits bill designed to be one of the GOP\u2019s big legislative wins before the midterms.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6224\">How to minimize the health risks of wildfire smoke<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            Just minutes before the bill was slated to come to the floor, Johnson and his team were forced to pull it from the schedule as more than a half-dozen holdouts refused to back the measure.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The bill has been in trouble for weeks. It\u2019s been a major source of tension in the military community, with powerful groups like the Veterans of Foreign Wars and Disabled American Veterans opposed to the measure because it reduces certain disability coverage \u2014 while others, like there American Legion, have backed it.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            But Johnson and his deputies decided to go ahead with the vote. On Thursday, those concerns persisted and Johnson attempted to salvage it at the eleventh hour, holding a meeting just off the floor with a group of GOP moderates who had concerns about the bill but they could not get the votes needed.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The defeat for Johnson is the latest in a string of complications for leadership. Only days earlier, Johnson had struck a truce with GOP hardliners to reopen the floor after they\u2019d effectively seized control and prevented the speaker from moving key bills for two weeks. Now, they are leaving Washington on Thursday without a clear path forward on the veteran benefits bill.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Those GOP centrists, among others, have opposed one piece of the sprawling measure \u2014 the plan to pay for expanded benefits by limiting payouts for future recipients\u2019 disability claims. Critics say it would effectively eliminate compensation for tinnitus and sleep apnea from the government\u2019s list of standalone disabilities to help pay for the expansion in other benefits.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            And inside the room, the conversation grew so tense that one member, Rep. Zach Nunn, told his colleague, Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, to stop talking mid-conversation, according to two sources in the room. Luna \u2014 who has drawn the ire of the GOP for holding up the floor in recent weeks over an unrelated election bill \u2014 had been explaining why she wasn\u2019t backing down from calling for the bill to be sent back to the committee level.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Luna ended up leaving the meeting, the sources said.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cAs a combat vet, I\u2019ve worked with veterans to deliver. APL walked in late, threw a temper tantrum, and then left. She\u2019s interested in clicks, we\u2019re working for disabled vets, military spouses, and suicide prevention \u2014 that\u2019s what matters,\u201d Nunn said in a statement to CNN.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Luna later explained that she would not vote for the veterans bill because it took away certain medical benefits for service members.\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6210\">\u2018Let\u2019s get back to work\u2019: Karoline Leavitt returns to the briefing room podium for the first time since maternity leave<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cI\u2019m not going to vote for it because I think that it\u2019s bad to cut sleep apnea and also tinnitus and then bundle it with other things. I don\u2019t think that it makes sense,\u201d Luna said.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Luna posted to X Thursday afternoon, \u201cAs a veteran, and more importantly as the representative of a veteran-heavy district, I will never vote to cut veterans\u2019 benefits, nor will I vote to prevent current service members from filing claims in the future. Today, I found myself at the center of an unhinged meltdown and was told to \u2018stop talking\u2019 simply for pointing out how wrong it is to cut veterans\u2019 benefits.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Another one of the GOP defectors, Rep. Jeff Van Drew, was clear he would not change his mind: \u201cI\u2019m not changing my vote.\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cI love the bill 90% of it, but I don\u2019t like dripping away benefits for veterans to help other veterans. You don\u2019t separate people out that way and you also make sure veterans groups should be behind us,\u201d Van Drew said.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The collapse of the veterans bill is a bad omen for Johnson in one of his final weeks before the House\u2019s lengthy August recess, where he and his team are trying to muscle through a massive $95 billion emergency funding bill, most of which would go to the Pentagon.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            Senate Majority Leader John Thune warned Thursday that the House GOP effort to pass a budget bill for defense, agriculture and state grants to promote voter ID requirements carries strategic risks.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            The legislation would move through a complex process known as budget reconciliation that would allow the bill to pass in the Senate without Democratic votes. But Thune cautioned the unique rules governing passage of the bill in the Senate might subject Republicans to a slew of politically sensitive votes close to the midterm elections and allow Democrats to petition the Senate parliamentarian to strike key GOP priorities from the bill.\n    <\/p>\n<p>\n            \u201cIt\u2019s a risky proposition,\u201d Thune told reporters.  \u201cIs the juice worth the squeeze?\u201d\n    <\/p>\n<p>Read more <a href=\"https:\/\/relocationtimess.com\/?p=6208\">Fetterman lays out \u2018red line\u2019 over leaving Democratic Party: Israel<\/a><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>CNN\u2019s Ted Barrett contributed<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Speaker Mike Johnson suffered another humiliating political defeat at the hands of his own party on Thursday when he was forced to abandon plans to pass a veterans\u2019 benefits bill designed to be one of the GOP\u2019s big legislative wins before the midterms.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6225,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6226","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.6 - 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